A Tale of Two CEOs, SEIU calls for firing BoA’s Lewis (Updated)

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

(Updated with quotes from Andy Stern, head of the SEIU)

From the SEIU blog.  Please sign the petition and spread the word.

I have a story for you.

Two CEOs lead two large public companies that start sinking, putting thousands out of work and toppling the American economy. Both CEOs accepted billions in taxpayer dollars to sustain their companies, but both failed to stop their companies’ downward spirals.

One CEO — GM’s Rick Wagoner — got his pink slip from President Obama this morning. The other — Bank of America’s Ken Lewis — accepted bailout funds while continuing to fleece consumers and taxpayers.

It’s time for the Obama Administration to show the door to CEO Ken Lewis in order for real reform to take hold at Bank of America.

Sign our petition to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner calling for Ken Lewis to be replaced as Bank of America CEO. Click here to take action:

http://action.seiu.org/page/s/…

http://www.seiu.org/2009/03/te…

The blog post goes on to list the reasons why:

Why should Ken Lewis be fired? Let’s count the reasons.

$45 billion bailout for more of the same. Ken Lewis’ Bank of America has yet to change its core business practices that ran our economy into the ground in the first place.

$5 billion in bonuses met with blind eye. CEO Ken Lewis turned a blind eye when one of his new acquisitions gave out an estimated $5 billion in bonuses right before the company got a $10 billion bailout.

$120 million in CEO pay. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took home more than $120 million dollars in the last several years, more than 4,000 times what his average employee makes. The era of excess is over.

247,000 forgotten employees. Ken Lewis’ Bank of America is actively fighting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing for its employees. In some states, Bank of America employees take up large portions of public health care because they don’t earn enough money.

Sign the Petition.

Update I:

Andy Stern, president of the SEIU, said that it “defies logic, common-sense, and responsible governance to punish the auto industry while letting financial institutions off the hook.”

snip

“Both Rick Wagoner and Ken Lewis sunk large public companies — putting thousands out of work and toppling the American economy — while accepting billions in taxpayer bailouts. Yet only Wagoner got a pink slip. It’s time for Treasury Secretary Geithner to replace Ken Lewis as CEO and let real reform take hold at Bank of America,” said Stern. “Firing GM’s CEO is a positive step towards restructuring a broken industry. But the Obama Administration needs to apply the same lesson to the financial sector: replace failed leadership and shepherd the industry into a new era.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Sam Stein notes that “Stern’s remarks represent some of the sharpest condemnation of Obama’s handling of the automotive and banking industry bailouts to date.”

Good!

Greg Sargent, formerly from TPM, and now at The Plum Line, sees this as pushback by the Left:

That’s some sharp and direct criticism of the Obama administration’s comparative handling of the automotive and banking messes, coming straight from a leading administration ally.

Obama’s ouster of Wagoner has given the left an opening to press the White House for a more aggressive, harder-line approach to financial institutions.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov….